Charity’s Column: Let the library be all it can be

In the winter of 1999, my 7-year-old son had just learned to ride a two-wheeler along a deserted stretch of Crescent Beach. Full of the joy of self-locomotion, he asked if he could ride by himself to the Shelter Island Public Library to find a book.

The library was about a half mile from our house, and the trip was on quiet roads, so I said yes. I followed to make sure he was O.K., and when he arrived safely, I went home. He returned later with a book, and some extra confidence.

My son’s trips to the library on his bike became a regular outing for him, and when I asked one of the librarians, she said he was a welcome patron and admired his zest for reading as well as his bike-handling skills.

Libraries have been around the block a few times. The Assyrian King Ashurbanipal had 30,000 cuneiform tablets organized by subject 14 centuries ago, and the U.S. has had a strong system of libraries ever since philanthropist Andrew Carnegie saw to it that 1,700 public libraries were built between 1881 and 1919.

But clay tablets are no longer the medium of choice, and the place that was built like a bank vault, where a no-nonsense librarian scowled if you sneezed, have mostly been re-purposed. Today’s library is an inviting community center and the Shelter Island Library offers the community everything from computer and resources to launch a job search and get a passport  to a clean, well-lighted place to browse through magazines and build a castle from Legos.

When I was in the 4th grade, the public library in Keystone Heights, Fla. was my haven — the only place where I was allowed to explore independently and take away whatever I wanted. I walked there with my two younger sisters, but once inside we scattered, each in search of her own adventure.

I loved stories about lone survivors of airplane crashes, or people stranded on desert islands, while the sister who would later become a scientist liked books about animals, and the one who later became a teacher and editor gravitated to fables and fairy tales.

Sometimes I purposefully checked out a book that I knew my mother would not like in an effort to flaunt my independence. It felt great.

My first library experiences were in the 1960s, a time when women were not yet allowed at the college I would eventually attend. The Shelter Island Public Library had just been constructed and like all libraries at the time it lacked computers and copy machines for the public to use. Quiet was enforced by librarians who probably did not keep stickers in their desks to reward good behavior. There was no mah-jongg, no French conversation group, no philosophy discussion.

One thing that has not changed much since the 1960s is the Shelter Island Library building, and remedying that means expansion and renovation. It’s about time, and thank goodness Director Terry Lucas has developed a plan to do it using existing resources of space and manpower, a minimum of taxpayer expense, and maximum long-term benefit to the community.

We’re lucky that thanks to Ms. Lucas and a small, superhuman staff of librarians, the activities and community events at the Shelter Island Public library are on a par with much larger and better-financed public libraries. Our library has expanded its programs and kept pace, our building has not.

That’s where every registered voter on Shelter Island can help. If you haven’t already filled out an absentee ballot and dropped it off at the school, come to the library and vote on Saturday, June 17, to allow this vital community institution to raise money, apply for grants and use taxpayer dollars to finance the space it needs to educate, enlighten and empower all of us.

Even the ones who get around on a bike.